The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-05-18
THE NEW DISTRICTS.

The Governor, Secretary and Utal
Commissioners, acting by authority o
the Edmunds-Tucker act, have com
pleted the work of redistricting the Ter
ritory and apportioning the represen ia
ton for the Legislative Assembly
The result is published elsewhere IL
The HERALD. a different system t.
the one which has heretofore been the
rule, has been employed. The Terri
tory has been divided into twenty -four
Representative and twelve Council dis
tricts, there being a single member ap-
portioned to each. Heretofore there
have been more larger and fewer dis
tricts, the Representative districts num-
bering twelve, and the Council districts
eight. The new plan is the better, for
it makes it certain that every section of
the Territory will be represented,
whereas this was not the case before
For instance, Salt Lake, Davis and
Morgan Counties formed one Represent.
tive district, and in the last Legislature
this city had five of the six Represents
atives of the district. Salt Lake, Davis
and Tooele Counties were Council dis.
trict, with four Councillors, three of
whom came from Salt Lake City. In
the new arrangement, no district will
elect more than one member, and thus
a thoroughly representative body of
men should be chosen.
We don't know upon what showing
offgures the board arranged the dis
tr1cts and appointments. 1t could not
have been the last census, nor the re-
turns from any late election; nor could
the registration lists have been referred
to. We have, this morning. arranged
table showing the votes cast in each
district, Representative and Council, at
The last general election, that for Dele
gate to Congress in 1886. There was by
no means full vote on the occasion,
but with the exception of Summit
County, where the full strength of the
parties was shown, the per centage of
stay-at homes was probably about the
same in every county of the Territory;
hence the showing here made is very
fair exhibit OF the voters, and conse-
uuently is representative of the populs
ton of the several counties. It will be seen
that very little attention has been paid
touniformity in the matter of apportion-
ment, some districts containing double |
TIE number of voters of others. To
accomplish this also, some "shoe-
string" work has been done, as instance
The sixth representative district,
which runs from the Point of the
Mountain west, just this side of Black
Rock, across the northwest corner of
Salt Lake County, takes in Davis
County on the north, embraces Morgan
RloDg the Weber River, and reaches out
to include Renneferville in Summit
County. just this side of Echo. An
outline map of the districts would form
On amusing picture, if it did not make
fellow crcss-eyed to look at it. There
has evidently been straining on the
part of the board to help the Liberals to
as many seats in the Assembly as pos
sible. But, Notwithstanding the gerry
mender in the interest of the Liberals,
The HERALD is not going to complain
much of the districting. While the
Rnti-Mormons will be represented in
each house of the Assembly, that repre-
sentation will be so insignificant that it
viii alarm nobody.
Our morning contemporary claims
that the Liberals "can at least elect six
members Of the House of Repre-
sentatives and three members of
the Council" AMI proceeds to name
the districts which "can. be car
xied" as follows: Representative, rs.
g, 10 and II; Council, 4, and 7. THE
HERALD is probably as familiar with the
voting strength of the opposing parties
as our contemporary, and our figuring
gives the anti-Mormons one Councillor.
and three Representatives. The Llber-
ais should carry the 4th Council dis
trict, comprising the 9TH and 9th Rep-
resentative districts-Summit County
except four almost exclusively Mormon
precincts, Mountain Dell and Sugar
House recincts IN Salt Lake County.
and the first Salt Lake City precinct.
And with this the Liberals will have to
content themselves, for they can gain
no other seat in the Council. The 4th.
7th and sth Representative districts
may be carried by the Liberals if thew
register their full voting strength, which
they are not doingss by good deal, and
do not indulge in a quarrel at Park
City, which they are always liable to do.
We are content to have things as they
have been arranged, and now only re-
guest that the Peoples Party managers
viii see to it that none of the party
voters lose their right to vote through
failure to register. The work necessary